Mertesacker & Co. stave-off Harnik’s Austrian charge

Despite a poor first half performance, Germany were the ones celebrating at the end of the game.
First Team
Thursday, 07.02.2008 / 15:52

In Germany’s first international match of 2008 in Austria, there was a head on clash between two Werder Bremen players. Whilst Per Mertesacker was able to celebrate a 3:0 win with the German eleven, Austrian striker Martin Harnik was left with nothing to show for a good performance with the EURO 2008 co-hosts. ‘Almost’ Werder man Sebastian Prödl was also involved for the Austrian’s over the 90 minutes.

In Germany’s first international match of 2008 in Austria, there was a head on clash between two Werder Bremen players. Whilst Per Mertesacker was able to celebrate a 3:0 win with the German eleven, Austrian striker Martin Harnik was left with nothing to show for a good performance with the EURO 2008 co-hosts. ‘Almost’ Werder man Sebastian Prödl was also involved for the Austrian’s over the 90 minutes.

 

Per Mertesacker had plenty to keep him busy, particularly during the first period, in front of a crowd of 48,000 at the Ernst-Happel-Stadium, with the visitors putting their hosts under some unexpected pressure early on. ‘Merte’ had to clear from his goal line in the 22nd minute after a Roland Linz effort had beaten stranded keeper Jens Lehmann. The lofty Werder defender could only watch on a minute later as Martin Harnik rose to meet a corner from the right but saw his effort bounce away off the crossbar.

 

The German side had great difficulty in finding their way into the tie and it took until the second half, as the Austrian’s energy began to subside, to finally get a grasp on proceedings. German effectiveness was rewarded with goals from Thomas Hitzlsperger (53’), Miroslav Klose (63’) and Mario Gomez (80’) and at the end, ‘Merte’ got to enjoy the result of his 90 minutes work whilst Martin Harnik left the pitch to a well deserved applause in the 74th minute. Prödl, who played the full 90 minutes, will be hoping to see his side get revenge for the defeat at the European Championships in summer. In the last game in Group B, on June 16th, Austria will be faced with Germany yet again and the Werder representatives will be hoping to play their part then too.

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